


Tether

by TheDragonofHouseMormont



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gallifrey, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 06:49:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5365427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDragonofHouseMormont/pseuds/TheDragonofHouseMormont
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After all her adventures, the time has finally come for Clara Oswald to return to her death.  But is this really the end?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tether

She had made the decision a long time ago - almost immediately, before she even knew she was making it - to die on the same day the Doctor died. For real. No regenerations. And not a moment sooner. Then that day came and it was like the chord that tethered her to the universe had been cut. There was no joy in adventures anymore. Her time had come.

She left her Tardis to Ashildr - the woman would find a mayfly of her own to travel with - and made her way through the city on Gallifrey, back to the extraction chamber. The moment she walked into the room they knew who she was; they had been waiting.

"Wait," a woman's voice called out behind her. "Clara Oswald." Clara turned around to see the General, the one the Doctor had shot in this very room so long ago, looking exactly as she had last seen her. "We've been keeping up with you," the woman said. "Following the stories. We know what you've done. You've become a lot like the Doctor."

"Yeah, well, I'm back," Clara responded. "I'm going to die now, so there's no need to be upset."

"We're not upset," the General said, her voice calm despite Clara's annoyance. "You probably shouldn't have interfered as often as you did, but we know you did a lot of good out there. And we know the truth about what you are, why the Doctor brought you back."

"About what I am?"

The General took a step closer to her. "It took us way to long to figure it out, but we understand now. You are one half of the hybrid and the Doctor is the other half. But you didn't destroy Gallifrey. You could have destroyed the _entire universe_ , but you didn't. You chose to die. You took your time getting here, but you were always coming back. You made him forget you, you kept your distance, you did everything you could to uphold the universe."

"So what?" She wanted to hear the point of this little anecdote. The Doctor was dead; she didn't want to stand here talking about how long they'd had to stay apart.

"We're thankful."

After everything she had seen the Time Lords say and do, expressing thanks was the last thing she had expected. "Well, you're welcome." She turned back around and looked at the door and the street outside. The trap street. The raven was waiting.

"And we thought," the General continued. Clara turned to face her again and hear whatever it was she still had to say. "With your permission of course, for everything that you have done for us and for the universe —"

 _I didn't do it for you_ , Clara thought, but she did not say anything.

"— that we could treat your death like a Time Lord's and upload your consciousness to the Matrix."

Clara felt something break inside her heart. Or heal; she was not entirely sure of the difference anymore. "You can do that?" Her voice came out as little more than breath.

The General still heard her. "I would not offer otherwise."

A smile pulled at Clara's lips. "Of course." She stood in the silence of the room thinking, trying to decide what was best. She would be dead but awake, like a file in a computer, like Danny when she spoke with him before he became a Cyberman. But she would be dead and no longer a threat to the universe, or at least she hoped she wouldn't be. "Would he be there?" she asked. "The Doctor?"

"Yes," the General responded without emotion. "He has already been uploaded."

And there it was again, that feeling in her heart. _Healing_ , she thought. _This must be healing_. She could feel the tether being pulled again, but this time in a new direction. Her eyes met the General's without fear, with joy in them. "I'll do it."

**Author's Note:**

> Ever wake up at 5 AM and just NEED to write a fic?


End file.
